Review #4- Venn Diagram

David James Poissant’s Venn Diagram is one of the saddest stories that I have ever read. The plotline chronicles a young couple’s attempt to accept tragedy and move on from the death of their one-month-old daughter who suffered from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. We see the ways in which both the narrator and his wife deal with the misfortune and how it has changed their marriage as a whole. They both feel so emotionally numb at times that they are able to speak of a separation “like two strangers discussing the weather” (323). The narrator begins to feel that leaving his wife is inevitable as all they do is fight in order to keep themselves from thinking about their daughter. Still, it is not that they ever stop loving each other, it is just that they feel helpless and incapable of successfully moving on. The story is extremely touching and the theme of grief and moving on is one that would constitute a really good topic for the essay. This has been one of my favorite stories so far and I think I might write about this one (189).